With the local election round the corner, and several local ward councillors not re-standing, new candidates have been out and about, and dropping in to Pembroke House to introduce themselves.
As a charity we abide by Charity Commission rules on campaigning and political activity. This means, for example, no candidate leaflets in our buildings! But we are also acutely aware that creating positive change in a neighbourhood involves strong collaboration with – and sometimes challenge to – ward councillors. So we are happy to meet with all candidates and hear what they have to say.
We also believe passionately in local decision making and building bottom-up democratic action in neighbourhoods (linked to wider change at the national level). That’s why, as long-standing members of Citizens UK, on Wednesday 22nd April we were excited to take part in the Southwark assembly at All Saints Peckham. We were a part of a coalition of hundreds of community leaders who came together to make specific asks of the leaders of the three biggest political parties in Southwark.
Wednesday’s event wasn’t the start of the work – over the past four months Southwark Citizens have spoken to over 700 members, bringing together people from across our diverse community, and from different organisations.
As part of this process, we held a workshop at the Walworth Living Room in March to narrow down the challenges we heard into specific asks – and discussed our proposals with Council officers, NHS allies, and others to ensure they were realistic.
The asks were split into themes on Housing, ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), Work and Wages, Young People and Health.
Particularly relevant locally was the following ask: ‘Pilot improvements, repairs and maintenance in a block at the Aylesbury estate, working with health partners, King’s College London and Southwark Citizens to monitor impact on health and wellbeing’. We look forward to supporting Southwark Citizens to hold politicians to account to deliver on badly needed repairs on the Aylesbury.
It was great to be a part of the process and we are excited to continue to work on these issues with our community after the elections. If you‘d like to get involved email us at neighbourhood@pembrokehouse.org.uk
